Differential Geometry, Surface Patches and Convergence Methods

Abstract

The problem of constructing a surface from the information provided by the Marr-Poggio theory of human stereo vision is investigated. It is argued that not only does this theory provide explicit boundary conditions at certain points in the image, but that the imaging process also provides implicit conditions on all other points in the image. This argument is used to derive conditions on possible algorithms for computing the surface. Additional constraining principles are applied to the problem; specifically that the process be performable by a local-support parallel network. Some mathematical tools, differential geometry, Coons surface patches and iterative methods of convergence, relevant to the problem of constructing the surface are outlined. Specific methods for actually computing the surface are examined.